In-vehicle terminal and ride-sharing control method

ABSTRACT

An in-vehicle terminal mounted in a vehicle includes a controller configured to: transmit a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share a ride in the vehicle; upon receipt of the radio signal from a user terminal that has received the radio signal, transmit information relating to the vehicle to the user terminal; and receive information indicating a result of determination of whether or not a user of the user terminal can join the ride in the vehicle, the determination being made using the information relating to the vehicle, from the user terminal.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a Continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/443,912, filedJun. 18, 2019, which in turn claims the benefit of Japanese PatentApplication No. 2018-119030, filed Jun. 22, 2018. The disclosure of theprior applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an in-vehicle terminal, a userterminal and a ride-sharing control method.

Description of the Related Art

In recent years, a form of transportation in which a plurality of peopleshare a ride in a same vehicle have been prevailing. As a techniquerelating to ride-sharing between persons that are strangers to eachother, there is a fellow passenger search system including a managementserver that stores information relating to users and user terminalscarried by users, in which in response to a request from a userterminal, the management server searches for a fellow passenger that isanother user that shares a ride in a vehicle for travelling (forexample, patent document 1).

CITATION LIST Patent Document

[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2014-146261[Patent document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-289192

SUMMARY

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a technique thatenables grasping whether or not a user located within a coverage of aradio signal from a vehicle can share a ride in the vehicle.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an in-vehicle terminalmounted in a vehicle. The in-vehicle terminal includes a controllerconfigured to:

transmit a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share a ridein the vehicle;

upon receipt of the radio signal from a user terminal that is locatedwithin a range in which the radio signal reaches and can receive theradio signal, transmit information relating to the vehicle to the userterminal; and

receive information indicating a result of determination of whether ornot a user of the user terminal can join the ride in the vehicle, thedetermination being made using the information relating to the vehicle,from the user terminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a ride-sharing controlmethod including causing an in-vehicle terminal mounted in a vehicle to:

transmit a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share a ridein the vehicle;

upon receipt of the radio signal from a user terminal that is locatedwithin a range in which the radio signal reaches and can receive theradio signal, transmit information relating to the vehicle to the userterminal; and

receive information indicating a result of determination of whether ornot a user of the user terminal can join the ride in the vehicle, thedetermination being made using the information relating to the vehicle,from the user terminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a user terminal. Theuser terminal includes a controller configured to:

receive a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share a ride ina vehicle, the radio signal being transmitted from an in-vehicleterminal mounted in the vehicle, within a coverage of the radio signal;

transmit a response to the radio signal;

receive information relating to the vehicle from the in-vehicle terminalthat has received the response;

determine whether or not a user of the user terminal can join the ridein the vehicle, using the information relating to the vehicle; and

generate information relating to a result of the determination andtransmit the information to the in-vehicle terminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a ride-sharing controlmethod including causing a user terminal to:

receive a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share a ride ina vehicle, the radio signal being transmitted from an in-vehicleterminal mounted in the vehicle, within a coverage of the radio signal;

once the user terminal transmits a response to the radio signal, receiveinformation relating to the vehicle from the in-vehicle terminal thathas received the response;

determine whether or not a user of the user terminal can join the ridein the vehicle, using the information relating to the vehicle; and

generate information relating to a result of the determination andtransmit the information to the in-vehicle terminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an in-vehicle terminalmounted in a vehicle. The in-vehicle terminal includes a controllerconfigured to:

transmit a radio signal indicating that it is possible to join a ride inthe vehicle;

receive, from a user terminal that is located within a coverage of theradio signal and can receive the radio signal, information relating to auser of the user terminal;

determine whether or not the user can join the ride in the vehicle,using the information relating to the user; and

generate information indicating a result of the determination andtransmit the information to the user terminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides an in-vehicle terminalmounted in a vehicle. The in-vehicle terminal includes a controllerconfigured to:

receive a radio signal indicating a ride-sharing request of a user of auser terminal, the radio signal being transmitted from the userterminal, within a coverage of the radio signal;

transmit information relating to the vehicle to the user terminal; and

receive information indicating a result of determination of whether ornot the user can join a ride in the vehicle, the determination beingmade based on the information relating to the vehicle, from the userterminal.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a program for causinga computer to execute the above-stated ride-sharing control method, anda recording medium storing the program.

The present disclosure enables grasping whether or not a user locatedwithin a coverage of a radio signal from a vehicle can share a ride inthe vehicle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example configuration of aninformation processing system according to a first embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example configuration of an information processingapparatus that can be applied to an in-vehicle terminal 10;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example configuration of an in-vehicle terminal;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example configuration of an information processingapparatus that can be used as a user terminal;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example configuration of a user terminal;

FIG. 6A is a diagram of vehicle-related information and FIG. 6B is adiagram of user-related information;

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operation in aninformation processing system;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating ride-sharing possibilitydetermination processing in a user terminal;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating example processing relating to anexchange of meeting information;

FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operationaccording to a second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of ride-sharingpossibility determination processing performed in an in-vehicle terminal10;

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operationaccording to a third embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of ride-sharingpossibility determination processing in the third embodiment; and

FIG. 14 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operationaccording to a fourth embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The below description of embodiments includes description of anin-vehicle terminal including a controller configured to execute (a) to(c) below and a ride-sharing control method including (a) to (c) below:

(a) transmitting a radio signal indicating that it is possible to sharea ride in a vehicle;(b) upon receipt of the radio signal from a user terminal that islocated within a coverage of the radio signal and can receive the radiosignal, transmitting information relating to the vehicle to the userterminal; and(c) receiving information indicating a result of determination ofwhether or not a user of the user terminal can join the ride in thevehicle, the determination being made using the information relating tothe vehicle, from the user terminal.

According to the above-stated in-vehicle terminal, the controller of thein-vehicle terminal mounted in the vehicle transmits a radio signalindicating that it is possible to share a ride in the vehicle. Userterminals that are located within a coverage of the radio signal fromthe vehicle and can receive the radio signal receive the radio signal.If the controller receives a response to the radio signal from a userterminal, the controller transmits information relating to the vehicleto the user terminal. Then, the in-vehicle terminal receives, from atleast one of the user terminals, a result of determination of whether ornot a user of the user terminal can join the ride in the vehicle, thedetermination being made using the information relating to the vehicle.Consequently, for each of users located within the coverage of a radiosignal from the vehicle, the in-vehicle terminal can grasp whether ornot the user can join the ride in the vehicle.

In order to cause a user terminal, an address of which is unknown to thein-vehicle terminal, to be included in destinations of theaforementioned radio signal, the radio signal may be transmitted viabroadcasting. However, a user terminal, an address of which is known tothe in-vehicle terminal, may be set as a destination and a radio signaladdressed to the known user terminal may be transmitted via unicasting.Also, the aforementioned response may be transmitted with no conditionsupon reception of the radio signal by the user terminal. However, it isalso possible that if a setting indicating the user wishes to join aride is made in the user terminal (for example, a ride-sharing requestflag is on), a response is transmitted. Alternatively, it is possiblethat for example, if the user is notified of it being possible to sharea ride and the user performs an input to the effect that the user wishesto join the ride to the user terminal, a response is transmitted.

The information relating to the vehicle includes, for example, at leastone of information indicating a destination of the vehicle, informationindicating attributes of the vehicle, information indicating attributesof a driver of the vehicle and information indicating ride-sharingconditions other than the attributes of the vehicle and the attributesof the driver. Consequently, whether or not it is possible to join theride can be determined based on various types of information.

Also, the controller in the in-vehicle terminal may employ aconfiguration that transmits a radio signal including first informationin the information relating to the vehicle and receives the responsefrom one or more user terminals each having user request informationmatching the first information from among a plurality of user terminalsthat are located within a coverage of the radio signal and can receivethe radio signal. The first information can include at least one of theinformation indicating the destination of the vehicle, the informationindicating the attributes of the vehicle, the information indicating theattributes of the driver of the vehicle and the information indicatingride-sharing conditions other than the attributes of the vehicle and theattributes of the driver.

In other words, regarding transmission of the information relating tothe vehicle, the in-vehicle terminal may transmit the information if thein-vehicle terminal receives a response to the radio signal or maytransmit a part of the information in such a manner that the part isincluded in the radio signal (together with the radio signal) andtransmit the remaining part of the information to a relevant userterminal after reception of a response.

Also, the in-vehicle terminal may be configured to if the in-vehicleterminal receives the response, establish a communication channel withthe user terminal and transmit/receive the information relating to thevehicle and information indicating a result of possibility determinationusing the communication channel.

Also, a configuration in which the aforementioned controller in thein-vehicle terminal transmits assistance information for assisting inthe user riding in the vehicle to the user terminal if the user joinsthe ride in the vehicle may be employed. Also, a configuration in whichwhen a distance between the vehicle and the user terminal becomesshorter than a predetermined value, the aforementioned controller in thein-vehicle terminal transmits information for notification of theapproach of the vehicle, to the user terminal may be employed.

Also, the below description of the embodiments includes description of auser terminal that communicates with the aforementioned in-vehicleterminal. Also, the below description of the embodiments includesdescription of a mode in which the in-vehicle terminal obtainsinformation relating to a user from a user terminal and determineswhether or not it is possible to share a ride with the user. In thiscase, also, ride-sharing control can be performed by means ofcommunication between the in-vehicle terminal and the user terminal notvia a server. Note that ride-sharing possibility determination may bemade by processing distributed between the in-vehicle terminal and theuser terminal. Also, the below description of the embodiments includesdescription of a mode in which upon reception of a radio signalindicating a user's ride-sharing request, the in-vehicle terminaltransmits information relating to the vehicle to the relevant userterminal.

An in-vehicle terminal, a user terminal and a ride-sharing controlmethod according to each of embodiments of the present disclosure willbe described below with reference to the drawings. A configuration ofeach of the embodiments is a mere example and the present disclosure isnot limited to such configuration of each embodiment.

First Embodiment <System Configuration>

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example configuration of aninformation processing system according to a first embodiment. In FIG.1, the information processing system includes an in-vehicle terminal 10and one or more user terminals 20. The in-vehicle terminal 10 is acommunication terminal mounted in a vehicle 1. The user terminals 20 areone or more communication terminals that are carried by persons who wishto join a ride and can communicate with the in-vehicle terminal 10.Although FIG. 1 illustrates a single vehicle 1 and a single in-vehicleterminal 10, there may be two or more vehicles 1 and two or morein-vehicle terminals 10. Also, although FIG. 1 illustrates userterminals 20A and 20B as examples of the user terminals 20, there may bea single or three or more user terminals 20.

The in-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminals 20 cantransmit/receive data via a network 2. The network 2 includes, forexample, a WAN (wide-area network), which is a worldwide publiccommunication network such as the Internet, and an access network forthe WAN. However, a communication network other than a WAN may beemployed. The access network is, for example, a radio network adapted toor complying with a predetermined radio communication standard (radioaccess technology (RAT)). Examples of the radio communication standard(RAT) include, e.g., cellular communication standards such as 3G, LTE(Long-Term Evolution) and 5G, wireless LANs (including IEEE 802.11series and WiFi), Bluetooth (registered trademark), BLE (Bluetooth(registered trademark) Low Energy) and CV2X (cellularvehicle-to-everything). However, the radio communication standard is notlimited to the aforementioned examples as long as the radiocommunication standard enables proper communication of informationbetween the in-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminals 20.

In the present embodiment, the in-vehicle terminal 10 and the userterminals 20 transmit/receive information and data relating toride-sharing to each other directly (not via a server). Fortransmission/reception, a communication channel can be establishedbetween the in-vehicle terminal 10 and each of the user terminals 20.The in-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminals 20 communicateinformation and data relating to ride-sharing by means of peer-to-peer(P2P) communication or inter-device communication (D2D(Device-to-Device) communication). Here, peer-to-peer means that rolesof an in-vehicle terminal and a user terminal are not determined unlikea client (service-requesting side) and a server (service (such asinformation and an operation result)-providing side) in a client/serversystem. Each of the in-vehicle terminal and the user terminal requeststhe opposite party to provide information or an operation result asappropriate. For example, in the first embodiment, the in-vehicleterminal 10 provides information relating to the vehicle to a userterminal 20. On the other hand, the user terminal 20 determines whetheror not it is possible to join the ride, using the information relatingto the vehicle and provides a result of the determination to thein-vehicle terminal 10.

A radio signal from the in-vehicle terminal 10 is received by userterminals 20 located in a predetermined range, that is, a coverage ofthe radio signal. Conversely, a radio signal (e.g., a response) from auser terminal 20 is received by an in-vehicle terminal 10 located withina coverage of the radio signal. The coverage of a radio signal from anin-vehicle terminal 10 includes a range of direct reach of a radiosignal transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal 10 and a range ofpropagation of the radio signal via one or more relay stations 3. Eachrelay station 3 is, for example, a repeater and forms a part of thenetwork 2. A repeater receives a radio signal, reproduces an intensityand a waveform of the radio signal and retransmits the resulting radiosignal. Interposition of the relay stations 3 enables an increase indistance of propagation (coverage) of a radio signal.

Alternatively, each relay station 3 may be an access point (AP) of awireless LAN (local area network). In this case, the in-vehicle terminal10 or a user terminal 20 transmits a connection request including anSSID (service set identifier), which is an identifier of an accesspoint, to the AP. The in-vehicle terminal 10 or a user terminal 20 cantransmit data to the opposite party of communication directly (not via aserver) by connecting a wireless LAN and transmitting the data addressedto the opposite party of communication.

Note that a server 30 is connected to the network 2 (WAN). Each of thein-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminals 20 can access the server30 via the relay stations 3 and the network 2. The server 30 is anapparatus that manages information relating to the vehicle 1 used forride-sharing, a driver of the vehicle and persons (users) who wish tojoin a ride in the vehicle 1 and for example, accumulates, e.g., pastrecords of ride-sharing. Also, the server 30 can transmit (supply)information for assisting in direct communication between the in-vehicleterminal 10 and a user terminal 20 to the in-vehicle terminal 10 and theuser terminal 20. Also, it is possible to cause operation of thein-vehicle terminal 10 to be performed under the control of the server30.

The in-vehicle terminal 10 is a computer mounted in the vehicle 1, thecomputer communicating information relating to ride-sharing with a userterminal 20 and performing control of ride-sharing. The in-vehicleterminal 10 may be fixed (built) in the vehicle 1 or be detachablyattached to the vehicle 1 and taken out to the outside of the vehicle asappropriate, or be a portable communication terminal merely placed at apredetermined position inside the vehicle 1. Also, the in-vehicleterminal 10 may be a dedicated terminal or a general-purpose terminalsuch as a smartphone or a personal computer.

Each of the user terminals 20 is, for example, a compact (portable)computer. Examples of the user terminals 20 include, e.g., smartphones,tablets computer, mobile computers, wearable computers, wirelessstorages, feature phones, handy terminals and laptop personal computers.Each of the user terminals 20 also may be a general-purpose computer ora dedicated computer as long as the user terminal 20 can performfavorable communication with the in-vehicle terminal 10.

In the information processing system according to the first embodiment,where a driver of the vehicle 1 can share a ride with another person,the in-vehicle terminal 10 transmits a radio signal of a ride-sharingoffer notice (corresponding to “radio signal indicating that it ispossible to share a ride”) via broadcasting. A user terminal 20 that hasreceived the radio signal of a ride-sharing offer notice transmits aresponse to the radio signal to the in-vehicle terminal 10 if therelevant user has made a setting indicating the user wishes to join aride in the user terminal 20 or information indicating that the userwishes to join a ride has been input in the user terminal 20. Then, theuser terminal 20 establishes a communication channel between thein-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminal 20 and transmits/receivesinformation provided for determination of a degree of matching betweenthe vehicle side and the user side in relation to ride-sharing. As aresult of the determination, if it is determined to share a ride withthe user in the vehicle 1, information relating to a meeting point(pickup point) at which the driver of the vehicle 1 and the user meet iscommunicated between the in-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminal 20and each of the vehicle 1 and the user heads for the meeting point.Then, at the meeting point, the user rides in the vehicle 1 and travelsto a point or a location designated by the driver or the user by thevehicle 1.

<Configuration of in-Vehicle Terminal>

FIG. 2 illustrates an example configuration of an information processingapparatus (computer) 100 that can be applied to the in-vehicle terminal10. FIG. 3 illustrates an example configuration of the in-vehicleterminal 10. In FIG. 2, in the information processing apparatus 100, aCPU (central processing unit) 101, a main memory 102, an auxiliarymemory 103, a communication interface circuit (communication IF circuit)104, an input device 105 and an output device 106 are interconnected viaa bus 109. The CPU 101 is an example of a processor and each of a mainmemory 102 and an auxiliary memory 103 is an example of a memory device.

The main memory includes a RAM (random access memory) and a ROM(read-only memory). The RAM is used as, e.g., a program loading area, awork area for the CPU 101 and a data storage area. The ROM storesvarious programs to be executed by the CPU 101 and data to be used inexecution of the programs. The auxiliary memory 103 stores, e.g.,programs and data to be used in execution of the programs. The auxiliarymemory 103 is, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD).

The communication IF circuit 104 is a circuit that controlscommunication processing according to a RAT standard supported by thein-vehicle terminal 10. The communication IF circuit 104 includes aradio communication circuit for performing radio communication and isconnected to an antenna. Although FIG. 2 illustrates a singlecommunication IF circuit 104, where the in-vehicle terminal 10 performsradio communication based on two or more types of radio communicationstandards, a plurality of communication IF circuits 104 adapted to orcomplying with the respective radio communication standards areprovided.

The input device 105 includes, e.g., keys, buttons, a pointing deviceand/or a touch panel to be used for input of information. Also, theoutput device 106 is used for output of information. The output device106 includes, e.g., a display device and/or a printer. Also, the inputdevice 105 may include an audio input device such as a microphone. Theoutput device 106 may include an audio output device such as a speaker.As the audio input and output devices, for example, a headset may beused.

The CPU 101 performs various types of processing by loading programsstored in the main memory 102 or the auxiliary memory 103 and executingthe programs. Upon execution of programs by the CPU 101, the informationprocessing apparatus 100 operates as the in-vehicle terminal 10including a control unit 201, a memory unit 202, a communication unit204, an input device 205 and a display device 206 interconnected via abus 109, which is illustrated in FIG. 3.

The CPU 101 operates as the control unit 201. The main memory 102 andthe auxiliary memory 103 are used as the memory unit 202. Thecommunication IF circuit 104 operates as the communication unit 204(FIG. 3) and the input device 105 and the output device 106 are used asthe input device 205 and the display device 206, respectively.

The control unit 201 performs, for example, the below operation orprocessing as processing for controlling ride-sharing using the vehicle1:

(a) transmitting a radio signal indicating that it is possible to sharea ride in the vehicle 1 (including a radio signal of a ride-sharingoffer notice) via broadcasting;(b) transmitting information relating to the vehicle 1 to a userterminal 20; and(c) receiving information indicating a result of determination ofwhether or not a relevant user can join the ride in the vehicle 1, thedetermination being made using the information relating to the vehicle1, from the user terminal 20.

Also, the information processing apparatus 100 is connected to a carnavigation apparatus 108 mounted in the vehicle 1, via an interfacecircuit (IF) 107. The car navigation apparatus 108 includes, e.g., a CPU(processor), a memory device, a communication device, a GPS (globalpositioning system) receiver, an input device and a display device. Uponexecution of a program stored in the memory device, the processorcalculates a distance and a route to a destination and a length of timeestimated to reach the destination, based on destination informationinput from the input device and a current position obtained from the GPSreceiver, and causes the display device to display a map including theposition of the vehicle 1. Also, together with the map, the carnavigation apparatus 108 displays, e.g., the distance, the route and theestimated time. Also, upon the distance between the current position andthe destination becoming shorter than a predetermined distance, theprocessor notifies the driver of the vehicle 1 of reaching an area nearthe destination by an audio output and/or a change in mode of display.In generation of information relating to the vehicle 1, the in-vehicleterminal 10 uses information obtained by the car navigation apparatus108. Note that the in-vehicle terminal 10 may be provided by the carnavigation apparatus 108 or an extension of an existing communicationterminal mounted in the vehicle 1.

<Configuration of User Terminal>

FIG. 4 illustrates an example configuration of an information processingapparatus 120 that can be used as a user terminal 20. FIG. 5 illustratesan example configuration of a user terminal 20. In FIG. 4, theinformation processing apparatus 120 has a configuration in which a CPU121, a main memory 122, an auxiliary memory 123, a communication IFcircuit 124, an input device 125 and an output device 126 areinterconnected via a bus 129, which is similar to that of theinformation processing apparatus 100. A camera 131 and a GPS receiver132 are further connected to the bus in the information processingapparatus 120. The camera 131 is used for, e.g., pickup of an image of auser of the user terminal 20. The GPS receiver 132 is used for detectionof a position of the user terminal 20, that is, a current position ofthe user.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, in the information processing apparatus 120,the CPU 121 executes programs stored in the main memory 122 or theauxiliary memory 123. Consequently, the information processing apparatus120 operates as a user terminal 20 including a control unit 221, amemory unit 222, a communication unit 224, an input device 225, adisplay device 226, an image pickup unit 227 and a position detectionunit 228. In other words, the CPU 121 operates as the control unit 221.The main memory 122 and the auxiliary memory 123 are used as the memoryunit 222. Also, the communication IF circuit 124 operates as thecommunication unit 224. Also, the input device 125 and the output device126 are used as the input device 225 and the display device 226,respectively. Also, the camera 131 operates as the image pickup unit 227and the GPS receiver 132 operates as the position detection unit 228.

The control unit 221 performs the below operation or processing asprocessing for assisting in determination of a vehicle in which the userof the user terminal 20, the user wishing to join a ride, joins a ride:

(A) receiving a radio signal indicating that it is possible to share aride in the vehicle 1 from the in-vehicle terminal 10;(B) if the user of the user terminal 20 wishes to join the ride (forexample, has performed an input indicating that the user wishes to joina ride), transmitting a response to the signal to the in-vehicleterminal 10 and receiving information relating to the vehicle 1 from thein-vehicle terminal 10; and(C) generating information indicating a result of determination ofwhether or not the user can join the ride in the vehicle 1, thedetermination being made using the information relating to the vehicle1, and transmitting the information to the in-vehicle terminal 10.

<Vehicle-Related Information>

Next, vehicle-related information, which is the information relating tothe vehicle 1, will be described. The vehicle-related information isused for determination of a degree of matching between a vehicle and auser (person who wishes to join a ride). FIG. 6A is a diagram of thevehicle-related information. The vehicle-related information includes aplurality of information pieces of different categories, an informationpiece of each category includes information elements corresponding topredetermined information items. In the present embodiment, thevehicle-related information includes destination information, vehicleattribute information, driver attribute information and ride-sharingcondition information as a plurality of information pieces of differenttypes. The vehicle-related information is stored in the memory unit 202in association with a predetermined identifier (for example, a vehicleID). The vehicle-related information may be stored in advance in thememory unit 202 before establishment of a communication channel or maybe acquired after establishment of a communication channel. Thevehicle-related information may be acquired from the outside of thein-vehicle terminal 10 (for example, the server 30) by the communicationunit 204.

The destination information is information indicating a destination ofthe vehicle 1. As the destination information, for example, adestination set in the car navigation apparatus 108 is acquired by thecontrol unit 201 and the destination or an area belonging to thedestination (for example, a local public entity) is acquired as thedestination information. It is possible that if no destination is set,the control unit 201 notifies the driver of information for urgingsetting of a destination to make the driver to set a destination. Also,the control unit 201 may urge the driver to input destinationinformation using the input device 205 rather than operation of the carnavigation apparatus 108, to acquire the destination information. Thedestination information may include information on a point on the routeto the destination in addition to the final destination.

The vehicle attribute information is information indicating attributesof the vehicle 1. Examples of information items (attributes of thevehicle) of the vehicle attribute information include a vehicle type(e.g., a sedan, a minivan, a van, a truck, a minicar or an eco-car) andwhether or not the vehicle has a space for luggage (e.g., a loadingplatform or a trunk). The vehicle attribute information may includeimage information relating to the vehicle 1. The image information maybe an image taken of the vehicle 1 using, e.g., the image pickup unit227 or an image of a vehicle of a type that is the same as or similar tothe vehicle 1 for reference. Also, the attributes of the vehicle mayinclude whether or not there is another fellow passenger (occupant otherthan the driver).

The driver attribute information is information indicating attributes ofthe driver of the vehicle 1. Examples of information items (attributesof the driver) in the driver attribute information include, e.g., thegender, the age and the occupation of the driver. The driver attributesmay include a race or a language. If there is a fellow passenger otherthan the person who wishes to join the ride, attributes of such fellowpassenger may be included in the driver attribute information.

The ride-sharing condition information is information indicatingride-sharing conditions other than the vehicle attribute information andthe driver attribute information. The ride-sharing conditions includeinformation indicating attributes (the gender and the age) of a userallowed to join the ride by the driver of the vehicle 1. Also, theride-sharing conditions include, e.g., a ride fare range (from a lowerlimit to an upper limit), whether or not the user shares the ride with afellow passenger other than the driver, whether or not the user allows aperson who shares the ride to designate a point at which the person getsout of the vehicle and luggage size and weight limits. Note that thecontents of the attribute information and the ride-sharing conditioninformation are not limited to the above-indicated examples.

<User-Related Information>

Next, user-related information, which is information relating to a userwill be described. FIG. 6B is a diagram of user-related information. Theuser-related information includes a plurality of information pieces ofdifferent categories (information pieces of a plurality of categories),and an information piece of each category includes information piecescorresponding to one or more information items. In the presentembodiment, the user-related information includes destinationinformation indicating a destination of the user, user attributeinformation and user request information. The user-related informationis, for example, stored (registered) in the memory unit 222, inassociation with a user ID, which is identification information for theuser, in advance (before establishment of a communication channel).However, the user-related information may be one stored in the memoryunit 222 after establishment of a communication channel. Theuser-related information is acquired by an input using the input device225 or communication using the communication unit 224.

The destination information of the user corresponds to the destinationinformation in the vehicle-related information. The destination is,e.g., a location name, a facility name or an address of the destinationor a name of an area the destination belongs to (e.g., a local publicentity) or coordinates of a position of the destination. The destinationinformation has a form that enables comparison with the destinationinformation of the vehicle 1 (form that enables determination of whetheror not the destination of the user is the same as the destination of thevehicle or is located at a point on the route to the destination). Theuser attribute information is information indicating, e.g., the gender,the age, the occupation, the race and the language of the user andwhether or not the user carries luggage and the size of the luggage. Theuser attribute information is used as determination information for thein-vehicle terminal 10 to determine whether or not the user is allowedto join the ride. The user attribute information includes information onan image of the user. The information on the image of the user may beone taken and stored in advance or one taken by the user using the imagepickup unit 227 for transmission of the user-related information to thein-vehicle terminal 10.

The user request information is information indicating requests of theuser, the requests relating to ride-sharing, and is informationindicating requests of the user, the requests relating to driverattribute information and ride-sharing condition information invehicle-related information. For example, the user request informationincludes, e.g., attributes of a vehicle 1, attributes of a driver of avehicle 1, an amount payable as a fare, whether or not the user can joina ride with a fellow passenger other than the driver, whether or not theuser wishes designation of a point at which a person who shares the ridegets out of the vehicle and a size of luggage to be loaded. However,neither the user attribute information nor the user request informationis limited to these examples.

<Example Operation>

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operation in theinformation processing system. Where the driver of the vehicle 1 can(may) share a ride with another person, the driver operates thein-vehicle terminal 10 to start an application program for ride-sharingcontrol, the application program being installed in the in-vehicleterminal 10. The driver inputs information indicating that it ispossible to share a ride to the in-vehicle terminal 10. The input isperformed by, e.g., an input or a voice input using the input device 205(input device 105) of the in-vehicle terminal 10.

In response to the input, the control unit 201 (CPU 101) of thein-vehicle terminal 10 performs processing for transmitting a radiosignal including a ride-sharing offer notice (corresponding to a “signalindicating that it is possible to share a ride in the vehicle”), whichis based on a predetermined radio communication standard, from thecommunication unit 204 (FIG. 7<1>). The communication unit 204 transmitsthe ride-sharing offer notice via broadcasting. This is because at thecurrent stage, no person (user) who joins the ride has been determinedand thus a ride-sharing offer notice is delivered to user terminals 20of users that can be fellow passenger candidates.

Setting of broadcasting is made by setting a broadcasting address as anaddress of a destination of a radio signal. Upon detection of thebroadcasting address, each user terminal 20 handles the radio signal asone addressed to the relevant terminal. In other words, each userterminal 20 receives (loads) the ride-sharing offer notice.

In the first embodiment, as information included in the ride-sharingoffer notice, the information forming a part of vehicle-relatedinformation (first information), destination information in theinformation relating to the vehicle is included. For example, inresponse to the aforementioned input of information indicating that itis possible to share a ride, the control unit 201 acquires informationindicating a currently-set destination from the car navigation apparatus108, as destination information and causes the information to beincluded in the ride-sharing offer notice.

However, the first information may be information other than destinationinformation and may include at least one of vehicle attributeinformation, driver attribute information and ride-sharing conditioninformation in addition to destination information. The control unit 221of the user terminal 20 that has received the radio signal of theride-sharing offer notice determines whether or not user requestinformation the user terminal 20 has matches the first information.

The radio signal of the ride-sharing offer notice, the radio signalbeing transmitted from the communication unit 204 of the in-vehicleterminal 10, is received by each of a plurality of user terminals 20that are located within a coverage of the radio signal (radio waves) andcan receive the radio signal. In the present embodiment, a case where asan example of the plurality of user terminals 20, the user terminal 20Aof user A and the user terminal 20B of user B have received a radiosignal of a ride-sharing offer notice will be described.

Upon acquisition of a ride-sharing offer notice, the notice beingreceived by the communication unit 224 of each of the user terminal 20Aand the user terminal 20B, the relevant control unit 221 checks a flagrelating to ride-sharing control (FIG. 7<2 a>). The flag relating toride-sharing control is a flag indicating whether or not to start anapplication program for ride-sharing control (ride-sharing controlapplication), the application program being installed in the userterminal 20, and is stored in the memory unit 222. If a user of a userterminal 20 wishes to join a ride, the flag is set to be on and if auser of a user terminal 20 does not wish to join a ride, the flag is setto be off. Control of setting the flag to be on/off is performed using,for example, the input device 225.

If the flag is off, the control unit 221 ignores the ride-sharing offernotice and performs no specific processing. In the example illustratedin FIG. 7, in the user terminal 20B, the flag is off and theride-sharing offer notice is ignored. Consequently, no response to theride-sharing offer notice is transmitted from the user terminal 20B. Onthe other hand, if the flag is on, the control unit 201 starts (startsexecution of) the ride-sharing control application. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 7, the flag in the user terminal 20A is on and theride-sharing control application is stared (FIG. 7<2 b>).

Use of the flag enables avoidance of needless startup of theride-sharing control application and thus enables avoidance of waste ofpower and resources (resources of the CPU and the memories). Here, useof the flag relating to ride-sharing control is an option. If no flag isset, a configuration in which upon reception of a ride-sharing offernotice, the control unit 221 automatically starts execution of theride-sharing control application may be employed.

Upon startup of the ride-sharing control application, the control unit221 of the user terminal 20A compares the destination information of thevehicle 1 (corresponding to first information), the destinationinformation being included in the ride-sharing offer notice, destinationinformation of the user of the user terminal 20A (corresponding to userrequest information), the destination information being stored in thememory unit 222, with each other to perform determination processing fordetermining whether or not the destination information of the vehicle 1and the destination information of the user match each other (FIG. 7<2c>).

If the destination information indicates that the destination of theuser corresponds to the destination of the vehicle or a point on a routeto the destination of the vehicle, the control unit 221 determines thatthe destination of the vehicle 1 and the destination of the user matcheach other. Here, if the control unit 221 determines that thedestination of the vehicle 1 and the destination of the user do notmatch each other, the control unit 221 terminates the ride-sharingcontrol application and makes no response to the ride-sharing offernotice. As described above, if the destination of the user and thedestination of the vehicle 1 do not match each other, the control unit221 avoids a communication channel between the relevant user terminaland the vehicle 1 and terminates the ride-sharing control application tosave power and reduce a load.

If it is determined that the destination of the vehicle 1 and thedestination of the user match each other, the control unit 221 notifiesthe user of the information indicating that it is possible to share aride, the information being included in the ride-sharing offer notice(FIG. 7<3 a>). For example, the statement “ride-sharable vehicle exists”is displayed on the display device 206 or a voice of “ride-sharablevehicle exists” is output from a speaker. However, the manner of thenotification is not limited to the above. In the present embodiment, thenotification is provided by displaying the information indicating thatit is possible to join a ride on the display device 226 via pushnotification. The notification enables the user of the user terminal 20Ato know that there is a vehicle 1 in which the user can join a ride(seeking a person with which a ride is shared).

Upon knowing of the information indicating that it is possible to sharea ride, the user of the user terminal 20A determines whether or not torespond to the ride-sharing offer notice and inputs a result of thedetermination using the input device 225. Here, upon an input to theeffect that no response is made being performed, the control unit 221 ofthe user terminal 20 terminates the ride-sharing control application toavoid a procedure for establishing a communication channel (not toestablish a communication channel). This is intended to save power andlabor. On the other hand, upon an input to the effect that a response ismade being performed, the control unit 221 transmits a response to theride-sharing offer notice to the in-vehicle terminal 10 (FIG. 7<3 b>).The response is addressed and transmitted to the in-vehicle terminal 10using, for example, an address of the in-vehicle terminal 10 included inthe ride-sharing offer notice. The response includes an address of theuser terminal 20 and thereafter, the in-vehicle terminal 10 and the userterminal 20 communicate with each other with the opposite-side addressesset as respective destinations. The response corresponds to a “signalindicating that the user wishes to join the ride”. Note that aconfiguration in which a setting of the flag to be on is regarded as aninput of an intension of the user to wish to join a ride to omit aninput of a result of determination of whether or not to respond to theride-sharing offer notice and if it is determined that the destination(first information) of the vehicle 1 matches the destination (userrequest information) of the user, the control unit 221 automaticallytransmits a response may be employed.

The control unit 221 performs a connection procedure (handshake) withthe in-vehicle terminal 10 based on a predetermined radio communicationstandard to establish a communication channel with the in-vehicleterminal 10 (FIG. 7<4>). Consequently, a communication channel forpeer-to-peer communication is established between the in-vehicleterminal 10 and the user terminal 20. In the example illustrated in FIG.7, a radio signal of a response (FIG. 7<3 b>) and communication channelestablishment (FIG. 7<4>) are indicated as separate communications;however, the “response” in FIG. 7<3 b> may be a message (signal)transmitted from the user terminal 20 to the in-vehicle terminal 10 forcommunication channel establishment. At the time of responsetransmission/reception and communication channel establishment, avehicle ID of the vehicle 1 and a user ID of the user of the userterminal 20 are exchanged mutually, associated with the in-vehicleterminal 10 and the user terminal 20, respectively, and stored in therespective memory units 202, 222. These IDs are included in data andinformation communicated thereafter. Note that instead of the vehicleID, an ID of the in-vehicle terminal 10 may be used and instead of theuser ID, an ID of the user terminal 20 may be used.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 7, a case where the user terminal 20Atransmits a response to the in-vehicle terminal 10 and the control unit221 executes a procedure for establishing a communication channelbetween the user terminal 20A and the in-vehicle terminal 10 jointlywith the control unit 201 of the in-vehicle terminal 10 is indicated.The establishment of the communication channel is performed by means of,e.g., establishment of connection using an SSID in a wireless LAN (WiFi)or pairing in Bluetooth (registered trademark).

Upon establishment of the communication channel, the control unit 201 ofthe in-vehicle terminal 10 acquires the vehicle ID and thevehicle-related information from the memory unit 202 and transmits thevehicle ID and the vehicle-related information to the user terminal 20(user terminal 20A) using the communication channel (FIG. 7<5>). Thevehicle-related information transmitted here includes the vehicleattribute information, the driver attribute information and theride-sharing condition information other than the destinationinformation and thus corresponds to “remaining information in theinformation relating to the vehicle”. However, where a configuration inwhich a user can recognize the destination of the vehicle 1 by means ofdisplay or voice output of destination information is employed, thedestination information may be included at this point of time. This isbecause the user may recognize the destination of the vehicle 1 andpossibly join the ride although the destination is different from thedestination of the user.

Upon reception of the vehicle-related information, the control unit 221of the user terminal 20A performs ride-sharing possibility determinationprocessing (FIG. 7<6>). FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example ofride-sharing possibility determination processing in a user terminal.The ride-sharing possibility determination processing is processing fordetermination of a degree of matching between the vehicle 1 and a personwho wishes to join a ride (user) (also referred to as matchingprocessing).

In the processing in S01, the control unit 221 displays thevehicle-related information received by the communication unit 224, onthe display device 226. However, the display is optional and thevehicle-related information may be able to be displayed on the displaydevice 226 at a proper timing in response to an operation performed bythe user.

In S02, the control unit 221 acquires the user ID and user-relatedinformation (user attribute information and user request information) ofthe user of the user terminal 20A from, e.g., the memory unit 222. Theuser may be caused to input user-related information using the inputdevice 225 at this point of time.

The control unit 221 acquires the user-related information from, e.g.,the memory unit 222 or the input device 225. Then, the control unit 221compares the user-related information with the vehicle-relatedinformation (the vehicle attribute information, the driver attributeinformation and the ride-sharing condition information) to determinewhether or not the user request information and the vehicle-relatedinformation match each other (whether or not the user and the vehiclematch each other) (S03).

In S03, the control unit 221 determines whether or not the vehicleattribute information, the driver attribute information and theride-sharing condition information match the user request informationand the user attribute information. In other words, the control unit 221compares information pieces corresponding to respective informationitems in the user attribute information and the user request informationwith corresponding information pieces in the vehicle attributeinformation, the driver attribute information and the ride-sharingcondition information to determine whether or not the respectiveinformation pieces match each other. For example, the control unit 221determines whether or not, e.g., a type of the vehicle 1, the gender andthe age of the driver and a ride fare match requests of the user, whichare included in the user-related information.

The control unit 221 calculates a rate of coincidence of the userattribute information and the user request information with the vehicleattribute information, the driver attribute information and theride-sharing condition information after the determination processingfor the respective information items. The rate of coincidence may becalculated according to, for example, the expression “the number ofmatched information items/the total number of information items”.Alternatively, the rate of coincidence may be an average value ofdegrees of coincidence (discrepancy) between contents of the respectiveinformation items and the user's requests. The method for calculation ofthe rate of coincidence is not limited to the above examples. If therate of coincidence exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the controlunit 221 determines that the contents of the information items match theuser's requests and if the rate of coincidence does not exceed thepredetermined threshold value, determine that the contents of theinformation items do not match the user's requests. Then, the controlunit 221 causes the processing to proceed to S04.

However, the control unit 221 may display the rate of coincidence on thedisplay device 226 and cause the user to input a result of determinationof whether or not the contents of the information items match the user'srequests via the input device 225. In this case, as appropriate,coincidence/non-coincidence of the user attribute information and theuser request information with the vehicle attribute information, thedriver attribute information and the ride-sharing condition informationmay be displayed on the display device 226.

Also, in the processing in S03, the vehicle attribute information, thedriver attribute information and the ride-sharing condition information,and the user attribute information and the user request information maybe displayed on the display device 226 to allow the user to visuallydetermine whether or not the vehicle attributes, the driver attributesand the ride-sharing conditions match the user attributes and requestsand input a result of the determination using the input device 225. Inthis case, if information to the effect that they match each other orinformation to the effect that they do not match each other is input,the control unit 221 causes the processing to proceed to S04.

In S04, the control unit 221 generates determination result informationindicating that it is possible or not possible to join the ride. If theresult in S03 is “they do not match each other”, the control unit 221generates determination result information indicating that it is notpossible to join the ride. On the other hand, if the result in S03 is“they match each other”, the control unit 221 generates determinationresult information indicating that it is possible to join the ride.

In S05, the control unit 221 determines whether or not a remainingvehicle exists. The processing in S05 and S06 is processing to beperformed where in-vehicle terminals 10 of a plurality of vehicles 1 areconnected (establish respective communication channels) in parallel toone user terminal 20 and vehicle-related information is received fromeach in-vehicle terminal 10.

The user terminal 20 can be subjected to the following settings. When aride-sharing offer notice is received from a certain in-vehicle terminal10, if a communication channel with an in-vehicle terminal 10 of anothervehicle 1 has been established, the user terminal 20 ignores theride-sharing offer notice. In other words, the user terminal 20 cannarrow down vehicles 1 with which a communication channel is establishedto one.

Also, where a user terminal 20 has received radio signals of aride-sharing offer notice from a plurality of vehicles 1, a destinationof each of the plurality of vehicles 1 matching that of the userterminal 20 (no communication channel has been established), the userterminal 20 may select one vehicle 1 (in-vehicle terminal 10) accordingto a predetermined rule and establish a communication channel with theselected in-vehicle terminal 10. The predetermined rule is, e.g., anorder of earliness of a time of detection of the radio signal or adescending order of radio wave intensity.

However, it is also possible to make a setting so that communicationchannels with the plurality of in-vehicle terminals 10 are establishedin parallel with an upper limit provided. In this case, communicationchannels with a number of in-vehicle terminals 10, the number beingequal to or below an upper limit number, are established (operation in<2 a> to <4> in FIG. 7 is performed for each ride-sharing offer notice)and respective vehicle-related information pieces can be received fromthe respective in-vehicle terminals 10 using the respectivecommunication channels. In this case, the control unit 221 can performprocessing in S01 to S04 for each of the respective vehicle-relatedinformation pieces from the respective in-vehicle terminals 10 anddetermine whether or not the vehicle-related information piece matchesthe user's requests for each vehicle 1.

In S05, the control unit 221 determines whether or not there is avehicle-related information piece from a remaining vehicle. If theprocessing in S01 to S04 has been performed for the vehicle-relatedinformation pieces from the plurality of in-vehicle terminals 10 withwhich a communication channel has been established or if there is justone in-vehicle terminal 10 with which a communication channel has beenestablished, the processing proceeds to S06. Otherwise, the processingreturns to S01 and the processing in S01 to S04 is performed for theremaining vehicle-related information piece.

In S06, the control unit 221 selects (identifies) one vehicle 1 in whichthe user joins a ride from among the plurality of vehicles 1 (in-vehicleterminals 10). Here, if there is just one vehicle 1, for which adetermination result that “the relevant vehicle 1 match the user'srequests” (referred to as “matched vehicle”), the control unit 221selects the matched vehicle. On the other hand, if there are two or morematched vehicles, the control unit 221 selects one of the plurality ofmatched vehicles according to a predetermined selection rule. Forexample, rates of coincidence between user attribute information anduser request information, and vehicle-related information (vehicleattribute information, driver attribute information and ride-sharingcondition information) of the matched vehicles are compared with eachother and a matched vehicle, the rate of coincidence of which islargest, is selected. Alternatively, a predetermined number ofinformation items from a plurality of information items included in userrequest information and user attribute information are extracted and avehicle 1, the rate of coincidence between the extracted informationitems and vehicle-related information of the vehicle 1 being largest,may be selected. The control unit 221 may automatically performs theselection according to a predetermined rule. Also, the control unit 221may select a vehicle 1 that is a result of selection by the userinputting the result of selection via the input device 225 withreference to results of ride possibility determination (e.g., the rateof coincidence) for the vehicles 1, the results being displayed on thedisplay device 226.

In S07, the control unit 221 transmits the result of the ridepossibility determination to the in-vehicle terminal 10 of the vehicle 1selected in S06, using the relevant communication channel. Here, thedetermination result of “it is possible to join the ride” indicates thatthe user joins the ride in the vehicle 1 and the determination result of“it is not possible to join the ride” indicates that the user does notjoin the ride. However, if the result of the determination in S06 isthat there is no matched vehicle, information indicating that “it is notpossible to join the ride” is transmitted to the respective in-vehicleterminals 10.

Note that no result of determination may be transmitted to thein-vehicle terminals 10 not determined as a matched vehicle. The controlunit 201 in each in-vehicle terminal 10 sets a timer for waiting adetermination result at the time of transmission of the vehicle-relatedinformation. If the time is up on the timer without reception of adetermination result, the control unit 201 disconnects the communicationchannel and terminates the processing relating to the ride-sharingcontrol. Note that if the user does not join a ride in any of thevehicles 1 even though the vehicles 1 are matched vehicles, the user canperform an input to the effect that the user does not join a ride. Inthis case, the control unit 201 transmits no determination result to therespective in-vehicle terminals 10. As a result, the communicationchannels are disconnected, and the processing ends.

The control unit 201 of the in-vehicle terminal 10 receives theinformation indicating the result of the ride possibility determinationusing the vehicle-related information, from the user terminal 20A (FIG.7<7>). Then, the control unit 201 determines that the user of the userterminal 20A joins the ride in the vehicle 1. In this case, informationfor assisting in the driver finding the user or the user finding thevehicle 1 (assistance information; also referred to as meetinginformation) is exchanged (transmitted and received) between thein-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminal 20A (FIG. 7<8>). Thetransmission and reception are performed using the above-describedcommunication channel.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating example processing for exchange ofmeeting information. For example, the control unit 221 in the userterminal 20A acquires information indicating a current position of theuser terminal 20A from the position detection unit 228 (GPS receiver112) and transmits the information to the in-vehicle terminal 10 (S31).

The control unit 201 in the in-vehicle terminal 10 selects meeting pointcandidates using the information indicating the current position of theuser terminal 20A (S41). In the memory unit 202, information indicatinga plurality of locations at which the vehicle 1 can be parked, which canbe used for meeting with the user, is stored. Upon acquisition of thecurrent position, the control unit 201 selects a predetermined number of(for example, one to three; the number may be three or more) locationsat which the vehicle 1 can be parked, according to a predetermined ruleand determines the locations as meeting point candidates. For example,the control unit 201 extracts locations at which the vehicle 1 can beparked, a direct distance to each location from the current positionbeing shorter than a predetermined distance, and selects a predeterminednumber of such locations in ascending order of distance from the currentposition. Alternatively, the control unit 201 may select a predeterminednumber of locations at which the vehicle 1 can be parked in order ofearliness of an estimated time of reach of the vehicle 1. Also, thecontrol unit 201 may select a predetermined number of locations at whichthe vehicle 1 can be parked, based on the direct distances from thecurrent position of the vehicle 1 and the estimated times of reach. Forselection of locations at which the vehicle 1 can be parked, a speed anda direction of travel of the user may be taken into consideration.

Note that locations at which the vehicle 1 can be parked are locationsat which the driver can stop or park the vehicle 1 in order for the userto ride in the vehicle 1, such as, for example, a parking lot of aroadside station, a parking lot of a predetermined shop or facility(e.g., a convenience store, a vehicle dealership or a vehiclemaintenance shop) or a vacant lot.

The control unit 201 determines the predetermined number of locations atwhich the vehicle 1 can be parked as meeting point candidates andtransmits the meeting point candidates to the user terminal 20A (S44).Prior to the transmission, the control unit 201 may perform processingfor acquiring information indicating outer appearance characteristics ofthe vehicle 1 (referred to as “characteristic information”) asinformation to be transmitted to the user terminal 20A together with themeeting point candidates (S42). The characteristic information may be atext or an image indicating the characteristics or an image (photo) ofthe vehicle 1. The control unit 201 acquires the characteristicinformation by reading the information from the memory unit 202 orinputting the information from the input device 205.

Also, the control unit 201 may perform processing for acquiringtravel-related information relating to travel to the current position asinformation to be transmitted to the user terminal 20A together with themeeting point candidates (S43). The travel-related information can beacquired, for example, as follows. The control unit 201 gives thecurrent position to the car navigation apparatus 108 as a destinationand acquires a calculation result (information indicating, e.g., atravel route and a distance to the current position and a time to betaken to reach the current position) from the car navigation apparatus108 as travel-related information relating to travel to the currentposition (destination). The travel-related information serves asinformation roughly indicating, e.g., a length of time to be taken forthe vehicle 1 to travel to the current position, to the user. Note thatthe order of S42 and S43 may be reversed.

The control unit 221 in the user terminal 20A receives the meeting pointcandidates, the information on characteristics of the vehicle 1 and thetravel-related information relating to travel to the current position(S32). Then, the control unit 221 causes these information pieces to bedisplayed on the display device 226 (S33). The user inputs a result ofdetermination of a meeting point from among the candidates withreference to the content of the display on the display device 226. Thecontrol unit 221 acquires the result of the determination (S34). Also,the characteristic information of the vehicle 1 is stored in the memoryunit 222 as information for assisting in finding the vehicle 1. Thecharacteristic information of the vehicle 1 can be displayed on thedisplay device 226 as appropriate. Furthermore, the travel-relatedinformation for travel to the current position is taken intoconsideration in order to determine, e.g., a pace of travel to themeeting point.

The control unit 221 transmits the result of the determination of themeeting point to the in-vehicle terminal 10 (S36). Prior to thetransmission, the control unit 221 may acquire information indicatingcharacteristics of the user as information to be transmitted to thein-vehicle terminal 10 together with the result of the determination(S35). Example of the user characteristic information include, e.g.,information indicating the cloth and items (headwear, a bag and anaccessory) the user is currently wearing, information indicating colorsof the cloth and the items and a text and an image (photo) indicatingthe cloth and the items the user is currently wearing. The usercharacteristic information can be acquired by reading the informationfrom the memory unit 222, causing the user to input the information fromthe input device 225 or taking the image using the image pickup unit227. Note that the processing in S35 can be performed before theprocessing in S33 and S34.

Upon reception of the result of the determination of the meeting pointand the user characteristic information (S45), the control unit 201transmits the meeting point to the car navigation apparatus 108. The carnavigation apparatus 108 sets the meeting point as a destination (S46).The driver starts traveling (driving) to the meeting point according toan instruction from the car navigation apparatus 108. Also, theinformation indicating characteristics of the user is displayed on thedisplay device 226 (S47) and used as a clue in the driver finding theuser.

Subsequently, the control unit 201 occasionally acquires a currentposition of the vehicle 1 (corresponding to a current position ofin-vehicle terminal 10) calculated by the car navigation apparatus 108and the current position of the user terminal 20 received from the userterminal 20. The control unit 201 determines whether or not a distancebetween the current position of the vehicle 1 and the current positionof the user terminal 20 becomes less than a predetermined thresholdvalue (S48, FIG. 7<9>). If the distance becomes less than thepredetermined threshold value (predetermined value) (Yes in S48), thecontrol unit 201 provides (transmits) a notice of information indicatingthe approach of the vehicle 1 to the user terminal 20A (S49, FIG.7<10>). The notice may include some sort of message to the user. Themessage may include, e.g., information indicating a point to which thedriver wishes the user to move for smooth pickup and informationindicating an action to be performed by the driver from then. Also,instead of the distance between the current positions described above, adistance between the vehicle 1 (in-vehicle terminal 10) and the meetingpoint or the distance between the user terminal 20 and the meeting pointmay be used.

In the user terminal 20A, upon reception of the information indicatingthe approach, the control unit 221 notifies the user of the approach ofthe vehicle 1 (S37). The notification is provided by display on thedisplay device 226 and/or an audio output. Here, in the processing inS49, voice communication between the driver and the user may beperformed by transmission/reception of voice packets between thein-vehicle terminal 10 and the user terminal 20A using the communicationchannel. The voice communication enables detailed coordination forpickup.

The processing in S48 and S49 can be performed in the user terminal 20A.The distance used for determination in this case may be a distancebetween the user terminal 20 and the vehicle 1 (in-vehicle terminal 10)or a distance between the user terminal 20 or the in-vehicle terminal 10and the meeting point.

<Accumulation, Etc., of Past Records, Etc.>

The information processing system illustrated in FIG. 1 includes theserver 30. The server 30 has, for example, a configuration in which theCPU 101, the main memory 102, the auxiliary memory 103 and thecommunication IF circuit 104 are interconnected via the bus 109, whichis illustrated in FIG. 2.

The user terminal 20 (for example, the user terminal 20A) of the userthat has joined a ride in the vehicle 1, for example, after an end ofthe processing in FIG. 9, accesses the server 30 and transmitsride-sharing record information automatically or in response to anoperation performed by the user. The ride-sharing record information caninclude the below information. Also, the in-vehicle terminal 10transmits information held in the relevant terminal in the belowinformation to the server 30 after the processing in FIG. 9:

(i) the user ID (or the ID of the user terminal) and the vehicle ID (orthe ID of the in-vehicle terminal);(ii) the date of the ride-sharing;(iii) the vehicle-related information and the user-related information;(iv) the result of processing for matching the vehicle-relatedinformation and the user-related information with each other, a rate ofcoincidence between the vehicle-related information and the user-relatedinformation, etc.;(v) the meeting point; and(vi) the communication log.

In the server 30, the communication IF circuit 104 receives theride-sharing record information and provides the ride-sharing recordinformation to the CPU 101. The CPU 101 stores the ride-sharing recordinformation in a memory device (the main memory 102 or the auxiliarymemory 103). In the memory device in the server 30, a plurality ofride-sharing record information pieces are accumulated. Such recordinformation pieces are used for analysis of a tendency of the user'sselection and the user's preferences.

Also, the server 30 can store the vehicle-related information and/or theuser-related information in the memory device in response to a requestfrom the in-vehicle terminal 10 and/or the user terminal 20. In thiscase, the server 30 manages the vehicle-related information and theuser-related information using the vehicle ID or the user ID or acombination of the vehicle ID and the user ID. In response to aninformation provision request including the vehicle ID and/or the userID, the server 30 transmits the vehicle-related information and/or theuser-related information to the in-vehicle terminal 10 and/or the userterminal 20 that are a source of the request. Consequently, thein-vehicle terminal 10 can obtain the vehicle-related information fromthe server 30 and transmit the vehicle-related information to the userterminal 20 and the user terminal 20 can acquire the user-relatedinformation from the server 30 for comparison with the vehicle-relatedinformation. As described above, the server 30 can be used as a backupdestination of the vehicle-related information and the user-relatedinformation.

Also, the server 30 can perform, for example, the following operation.Upon the flag in a user terminal 20 being set to be on, notification ofthe flag being on is provided to the server 30. The server 30 transmitsa ride-sharing offer notice transmission instruction to in-vehicleterminals 10 of vehicles 1 registered in the server 30 according to thenumber of user terminals 20 with the respective flags on. Eachin-vehicle terminal 10 has an acceptance possibility flag indicatingwhether or not it is possible to accept the transmission instruction,and if the acceptance possibility flag is on (acceptance is possible) atthe time of reception of the transmission instruction, the relevantcontrol unit 201 transmits a radio signal of a ride-sharing offernotice. If the acceptance possibility flag is off, the control unit 201ignores the transmission instruction or provides a message indicating “aperson who wishes to join a ride exists” to the driver using the displaydevice 226 or the speaker. Consequently, if the driver can share a ride,the driver performs an input for transmitting a ride-sharing offernotice. The acceptance possibility flag can be set by the driver of thevehicle 1.

Effects of First Embodiment

In the information processing system according to the first embodiment,if the driver of the in-vehicle terminal 10 mounted in the vehicle 1 canshare a ride with a user, the in-vehicle terminal 10 transmits a radiosignal of a ride-sharing offer notice via broadcasting. Consequently,user terminals 20 located within a coverage of the radio signal (whichhave not been subjected to processing for matching the vehicle and theuser with each other in advance) are notified of it being possible toshare a ride. If a user of a user terminal 20 wishes to join the ride, aresponse to the radio signal is transmitted and a communication channelis established and vehicle-related information is provided and received.Subsequently, the user terminal 20 performs matching degreedetermination by comparison between the vehicle-related information anduser-related information and determines whether or not the user can joina ride based on the matching degree and a result of the determination isprovided to the in-vehicle terminal 10. Consequently, the in-vehicleterminal 10 can grasp whether or not user terminals 20 located in apredetermined range from the vehicle 1 can join a ride. In other words,even if ride-sharing users are unknown, it is possible to find a userwho wishes to join a ride (user of a user terminal that has responded toa radio signal of a ride-sharing offer notice) and share a ride with theuser. The user of the user terminal 20 can receive the ride-sharingoffer notice from the vehicle 1 (in-vehicle terminal 10) and grasp thatthere is a vehicle 1 that can share a ride, determines whether or not itis possible to join a ride using information relating to the vehicle,the information being provided from the in-vehicle terminal 10 andprovide a result of the determination to the in-vehicle terminal 10.

Also, in the first embodiment, a user terminal 20 receives thevehicle-related information from the in-vehicle terminal 10 and performsmatching degree determination. At this time, the user terminal 20 canreceive vehicle-related information pieces in parallel from a pluralityof vehicles 1 and select a vehicle 1 in which the user joins a ride fromthe plurality of vehicles 1.

In the first embodiment, a radio signal of a ride-sharing offer noticeis made to include destination information of the relevant vehicle toavoid a response and communication channel establishment if thedestination of the vehicle and a destination of a user do not match. Theinformation included in the radio signal of the ride-sharing offernotice (corresponding to first information) may be information otherthan the destination information or a combination of the destinationinformation and information other than the destination information(attributes (a vehicle type, the gender and the age of the driver, etc.)of the vehicle and the driver). If the information included in the radiosignal does not match the user's requests, a response and communicationchannel establishment are avoided.

Second Embodiment

Next, a second embodiment will be described. The second embodiment has aconfiguration that is in common to the first embodiment and thusdifferences from the first embodiment will mainly be described. FIG. 10is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operation according to thesecond embodiment and FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example ofride-sharing possibility determination processing performed in anin-vehicle terminal 10.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, in the second embodiment, after establishmentof a communication channel between an in-vehicle terminal 10 and a userterminal 20 (for example, a user terminal 20A), user-related informationis transmitted from the user terminal 20 to in-vehicle terminal 10 (FIG.10<5>). As illustrated in FIG. 11, the in-vehicle terminal 10 comparesthe user-related information received from the user terminal 20 andvehicle-related information to determine matching degree determinationand ride-sharing possibility determination (S11 to S14). A control unit201 of the in-vehicle terminal 10 establishes communication channelswith a plurality of user terminals 20 (for example, the user terminal20A and a user terminal 20B illustrated in FIG. 10) in parallel andreceives user-related information from each of the plurality of userterminals 20. Then, the control unit 201 of the in-vehicle terminal 10can calculate a rate of coincidence for each of the user terminals 20and decides a user of one of the user terminals 20 as a user with whicha ride is to be shared (S16, S17).

Except the above configuration, the configuration of the secondembodiment is similar to that of the first embodiment and descriptionthereof will be omitted. As with the first embodiment, the secondembodiment enables an in-vehicle terminal 10 to grasp whether or not auser terminal located within a predetermined range from a vehicle 1 canjoin a ride. Also, in the second embodiment, processing for ride-sharingpossibility determination (matching degree determination) is performedin the in-vehicle terminal 10, which enables reduction of a load on userterminals 20 and thus contributes to power saving in the user terminals20. Since the in-vehicle terminal 10 can be supplied with power from thevehicle 1 and thus a demand for power saving in the in-vehicle terminal10 can be considered low compared to the user terminals 20.

Third Embodiment

Next a third embodiment will be described. The third embodiment has aconfiguration that is in common to the first embodiment and thusdifferences from the first embodiment will mainly be described. FIG. 12is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operation according to thethird embodiment and FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example ofride-sharing possibility determination processing in the thirdembodiment.

In third embodiment, a ride-sharing offer notice includes no destinationinformation and the determination processing described in the firstembodiment (FIG. 7<2 c>) is not performed. Therefore, responsetransmission and communication channel establishment are performed as aresult of a user performing an input to transmit a response to theride-sharing offer notice to a relevant user terminal 20 (FIG. 12, <3 b>and <4>).

Subsequently, vehicle-related information including destinationinformation, vehicle attribute information, driver attribute informationand ride-sharing condition information is transmitted to the userterminal 20 (20A) (FIG. 12<5>) and the user terminal 20 performs theride-sharing possibility determination processing illustrated in FIG.13.

In the ride-sharing possibility determination processing according tothe third embodiment, destination information included invehicle-related information and destination information of a user arecompared (502A in FIG. 13). If the both do not match each other in thecomparison, the control unit 221 generates a result of determinationthat it is not possible to join the ride.

Except the above point, the third embodiment is similar to the firstembodiment and description thereof will be omitted. As with the firstembodiment, the third embodiment enables an in-vehicle terminal 10 tograsp whether or not a user terminal located within a predeterminedrange from the relevant vehicle 1 can join a ride. Also, according tothe third embodiment, transmission/reception of information fordetermination of whether or not to join a ride (vehicle-relatedinformation), which is provided in two installments in the first andsecond embodiments, is performed collectively at one time (FIG. 12<5>)and ride-sharing determination processing using the vehicle-relatedinformation also collectively performed at one time (FIG. 12<6>).Therefore, the processing in the user terminal 20 is simplified. Also,as in the second embodiment, a user terminal 20 may transmituser-related information including destination information to anin-vehicle terminal 10 and ride-sharing possibility determination may beperformed in the in-vehicle terminal 10.

Fourth Embodiment

Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. The fourth embodiment has aconfiguration that is in common to the first embodiment and thusdifferences from the first embodiment will mainly be described. FIG. 14is a sequence diagram illustrating an example operation according to thefourth embodiment.

In the first embodiment, an in-vehicle terminal 10 transmits aride-sharing offer notice to user terminals 20 and a response signaltransmitted from a user terminal 20 is received by the in-vehicleterminal 10 as a “signal indicating a request to join a ride”. Thefourth embodiment takes a form that does not perform transmission of aride-sharing offer notice.

In other words, in the fourth embodiment, in response to an input of arequest to join a ride (for example, an input using an input device 225)by a user of a user terminal 20, the user terminal 20 transmits aride-sharing request notice (corresponding to a “signal indicating aride-sharing request”) via broadcasting (FIG. 14<1>). Each of userterminals 20 can broadcast a ride-sharing request notice irrespective ofthe other user terminal 20.

In the fourth embodiment, the processing in <2 a>, <2 b>, <2 c>, <3 a>and <3 b> in FIG. 7, which has been described in the first embodiment,is performed by an in-vehicle terminal 10 (<2 a>, <2 b>, <2 c>, <3 a>and <3 b> in FIG. 14). Consequently, if a driver of a relevant vehicle 1determines that it is possible to respond to the request to join a ride,transmission of a response to the user terminal 20 and communicationchannel establishment are performed. A configuration in which ifride-sharing request notices are received in parallel from a pluralityof user terminals 20, a single ride-sharing request notice is acceptedcan be employed. Also, a configuration in which a plurality ofride-sharing request notices are received, vehicle-related informationis transmitted to each user terminal 20, a result of ride-sharingpossibility determination is received from each user terminal 20 and auser terminal 20 with which a ride is to be shared is selected may beemployed. As in the first embodiment, the fourth embodiment enablesgrasping whether or not a user terminals 20 located within apredetermined range from a vehicle 1 (located within a range in which aradio signal of a ride-sharing request notice reaches the vehicle 1)based on a result of ride-sharing possibility determination even if thein-vehicle terminal 10 does not transmit a ride-sharing offer notice.

The processing and measures described in the above first to fourthembodiments can freely be combined as long as such combination causes notechnical contradiction. For example, in the first to fourthembodiments, a part of the processing performed by one of the in-vehicleterminal 10 and the user terminal 20 may be performed by the other.

Also, the processing described as processing performed by a singleapparatus may be shared and performed by a plurality of apparatuses.Alternatively, the processing described as processing performed bydifferent apparatuses may be performed by a single apparatus. In acomputer system, what hardware configuration (server configuration) tobe employed to provide the respective functions can flexibly be changed.

Each of an in-vehicle terminal 10 and a user terminal 20 according tothe first to fourth embodiments can also be provided by supplyingcomputer programs providing the functions described in the aboveembodiments to a computer and causing one or more processors included inthe computer to read and execute the programs. Such computer programsmay be provided to the computer via a non-transient computer-readablestorage medium that is connectable to a system bus of the computer ormay be provided to the computer via a network. Examples of thenon-transient computer-readable storage medium include arbitrary typesof disks including magnetic disks (e.g., a floppy (registered trademark)disk and a hard disk drive (HDD)) and optical disks (e.g., a CD-ROM, aDVD disk and a Blu-ray disk), a read-only memory (ROM), a random accessmemory (RAM), an EPROM, an EEPROM, a magnetic card, a flash memory, anoptical card, and an arbitrary type of medium suitable for storing anelectronic instruction.

What is claimed is:
 1. An in-vehicle terminal mounted in a vehicle, thein-vehicle terminal comprising: a controller configured to: transmit aradio signal indicating that a carpooling ride in the vehicle isavailable to a plurality of users within a coverage area of the radiosignal without receiving a prompt from the plurality of users; receivefirst user-related information from a first user terminal; receive aresponse to the radio signal from a second user terminal that is locatedwithin the coverage area of the radio signal, the response includingsecond user-related information from the second user terminal; determinea result of whether or not the a user of the second user terminal isable to join the carpooling ride in the vehicle based on the firstuser-related information and the second user-related information; andtransmit the result to the second user terminal; wherein the radiosignal indicating that the carpooling ride in the vehicle is availableto the plurality of users is initiated by an occupant inside thevehicle.
 2. The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 1, wherein: thecontroller transmits the radio signal via broadcasting; the controllerreceives the response from each of one or more user terminals includingthe second user terminal and transmits information relating to thevehicle to the one or more user terminals.
 3. The in-vehicle terminalaccording to claim 1, wherein: the controller transmits the radio signalincluding first information relating to the vehicle to one or more userterminals each corresponding to the plurality of users; and thecontroller receives the response from a respective user terminal havinguser request information matching the first information from among theone or more user terminals that are located within the coverage of theradio signal and which is able to receive the radio signal.
 4. Thein-vehicle terminal according to claim 2, wherein the controller isconfigured to: establish a communication channel with the second userterminal that has transmitted the response, and transmit/receive theresult to the second user terminal via the established communicationchannel.
 5. The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 1, wherein theradio signal transmitted to the plurality of users includes informationrelating to the vehicle having at least one of: (i) informationindicating a destination of the vehicle, (ii) information indicating anattribute of the vehicle, (iii) information indicating an attribute of adriver of the vehicle, and (iv) information indicating a ride-sharingcondition other than the attribute of the vehicle and the attribute ofthe driver.
 6. The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 1, wherein ina case where the user of the second user terminal is allowed to join theride in the vehicle, the controller transmits assistance information forassisting in the user riding in the vehicle to the second user terminal.7. The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 6, wherein when a distancebetween the vehicle and the second user terminal becomes shorter than apredetermined value, the controller transmits information fornotification of approach of the vehicle, to the second user terminal. 8.The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 1, wherein the radio signalis first transmitted to the plurality of users within the coverage areaof the radio signal without receiving a carpooling request from theplurality of users.
 9. The in-vehicle terminal according to claim 1,wherein the controller is further configured to: calculate a rate ofcoincidence based on the first user-related information and the seconduser-related information, and determine the result of whether or not theuser of the second user terminal is able to join the carpooling ride inthe vehicle based on the calculated rate of coincidence.
 10. Aride-sharing control method comprising causing an in-vehicle terminalmounted in a vehicle to: transmit a radio signal indicating that acarpooling ride in the vehicle is available to a plurality of userswithin a coverage area of the radio signal without receiving a promptfrom the plurality of users; receive first user-related information froma first user terminal; receive a response to the radio signal from asecond user terminal that is located within the coverage area of theradio signal, the response including second user-related informationfrom the second user terminal; determine a result of whether or not thea user of the second user terminal is able to join the carpooling ridein the vehicle based on the first user-related information and thesecond user-related information; and transmit the result to the seconduser terminal; wherein the radio signal indicating that the carpoolingride in the vehicle is available to the plurality of users is initiatedby an occupant inside the vehicle.
 11. The ride-sharing control methodaccording to claim 10, wherein the radio signal is first transmitted tothe plurality of users within the coverage area of the radio signalwithout receiving a carpooling request from the plurality of users. 12.The ride-sharing control method according to claim 10, furthercomprising: calculating a rate of coincidence based on the firstuser-related information and the second user-related information, anddetermining the result of whether or not the user of the second userterminal is able to join the carpooling ride in the vehicle based on thecalculated rate of coincidence.
 13. A non-transitory computer readablemedium storing a program for use with a processor in a vehicle, theprogram causing the processor to execute steps comprising: transmitting,via a radio antenna, a radio signal indicating a carpooling ride in thevehicle is available to a plurality of users within a coverage area ofthe radio signal without receiving a prompt from the plurality of users;receiving first user-related information from a first user terminal;receiving a response to the radio signal from a second user terminalthat is located within the coverage area of the radio signal, theresponse including second user-related information from the second userterminal; determining a result of whether or not the a user of thesecond user terminal is able to join the carpooling ride in the vehiclebased on the first user-related information and the second user-relatedinformation; and transmitting the result to the second user terminal;wherein the radio signal indicating that the carpooling ride in thevehicle is available to the plurality of users is initiated by anoccupant inside the vehicle.
 14. The non-transitory computer readablemedium according to claim 13, wherein the radio signal is firsttransmitted to the plurality of users within the coverage area of theradio signal without receiving a carpooling request from the pluralityof users.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable medium according toclaim 13, further comprising: calculating a rate of coincidence based onthe first user-related information and the second user-relatedinformation, and determining the result of whether or not the user ofthe second user terminal is able to join the carpooling ride in thevehicle based on the calculated rate of coincidence.